Remittances and the educational attainment of children in the Philippines

This paper examines the determinants, primarily the receipt of remittances, of educational attainment of Filipino children using merged datasets from 2003 Labor force and family income and expenditures surveys. The determinants of the highest grade completed of children aged 13 to 22, 17 to 22, and 21 to 22 years are studied using IV-ordered probit models. Estimation results show that the receipt of remittances has positively affect the probability of finishing high school and college for females aged 13 to 22 and 21 to 22 years, respectively. Parental education has the largest contributions in the probabilities of graduation and the effects of having a highly educated mother are greater than that of having a highly educated father. Limited household resources adversely affect the education of children